Distance: 35 mi. (about 10 on bike)
Elevation Gain: 7800 ft. (about 1000 ft. on bike)

I had long been eyeing getting up Mt. Anderson in the middle of the Olympics, but the typical route up the Anderson Glacier tends to only be in for a brief period of time in the spring. I had missed that window again this year so I explored other routes in the Olympic Mountains Climbing Guide. I didn’t find much online for trip reports for either route 2 or 3 in the book that ascent the east slopes of the peak and avoid glaciers. I decided to go for it and see what I could find.

With a perfect weather forecast I made plans to bivy high on the mountain somewhere so I tried to pack light, having to bike about 5 miles and hike 13 miles with my overnight gear. I left the house early and arrived at the end of the Dosewallips road at around 7:30 am. The road is really washed out here and I had to walk the bike up and over a diversion trail that is pretty far up the hill. There was one other good road washout further down that I had to walk through as well as a few steep sections I walked. I arrived at the end of the road just before 9 am and checked out the old visitor center.

I stashed my bike in some bushes and took off down the very flat trail. It was about 1.5 miles to the trail split for the West Fork Dosewallips River. There are two big bridges over the main river and the west fork, then lots of flat miles. I made it to Honeymoon Meadows, where I had to ford the river, at about 12:30 PM. It was an easy crossing so I took my shoes off. From there the trail started to gain more elevation and I started to get some views on the way to Anderson Pass.

At Anderson Pass I turned right up the way trail that goes to the glacial moraine. I had seen two people on the road but no one since. It was quite a surprise to run into a large group of about 10 people when I arrived at the small pond at the top of the ridge. I decided to go slightly out of my way to peek over at Anderson Lake and the remnants of the glacier. The typical route didn’t look too inviting.

I then traversed eastward around point 5669 and then had to descend a bit to get to two lakes. From lake 4924 I headed due north to a small shoulder on the east side of Anderson. This is route 2 in the book, which is rated class 2, but it looks kind of steep on the way. Once I got up to the short gully it ended up being just a short step of loose Olympic 3rd class in my opinion.

At the top of the gully there were a series of scree and heather ledges to traverse onto the east face of Anderson. This was pretty easy but might be kind of treacherous if snow remained. The rest of the scramble up to the summit ridge was pretty easy (class 2-3) and I avoided the remaining snow patches. I reached the north ridge of the summit a little way below the top and then found myself on the summit just before 5PM. I had been moving pretty constantly all day and was quite tired at this point. I was happy to find some large flat rocks about 50′ below the summit where I could comfortably sleep with snow nearby to melt.

It was a beautiful sunset and then sunrise, one of my favorite all time places I’ve slept…made all the better by the absolute solitude I had. I made my breakfast, packed up and was heading back down by 7 am. I retraced my steps back to Anderson Pass with the exception of staying a bit lower to traverse around the lakes to avoid unnecessary elevation gain. I was back at the water crossing near Honeymoon Meadows at 10:30 and then booked it to my bike by 1:15.

The ride down to my car only took about 45 minutes including the few walking bits. I was back at the car by 2 PM with lots of daylight to make the drive home. This was one of my favorite trips in the Olympics and I would definitely like to get back to the area again.

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Recommended brew: Well 80 Original Dark

Gear Used:

• Aluminum crampons (not used)
• Aluminum Ice Axe (not used)
• Bivy Sack
• Day pack
• GPS
• Helmet
• Mountain Bike
• Sleeping Bag
• Sleeping Pad
• Stove
• Trail Runners
• Trekking poles

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